An Indian epic excites a foreign filmmaker

An Indian epic excites a foreign filmmaker
LEANDRE D'SOUZA

MARCH 31: Scott Swofford and G Bharat met about a year ago in California. Now, they are together making India's first IMAX film -- on the life of Shah Jehan in which Aishwarya Rai plays Mumtaz Mahal. Film producer Swofford -- who has produced a string of IMAX films such as the ground breaking Mysteries of Egypt and the Academy Award nominated Amazon -- wanted to see Bharat's work when he spoke of his idea of making an epic. So, they showed him Bharatbala's music video of AR Rahman's Vande Mataram.

Swofford relates a tale about his trip to Agra, ``The story unfolded in front of my eyes. Shah Jehan is invincible. His omnipresence is evident from the harem, the room in which he lived. And when I looked out from the Fort, the mist entangled itself with the love story. It was incredible.''

With Bharat, he now wants to recreate the mystery behind the Taj Mahal. ``The setting in India is exotic but no one has made a film weaving elements of opulence. From the costumes to the sets, the one-hour film will breathe of royalty,'' says Bharat lamenting that no one in India had dreamt of making a film like Shakespeare in Love or Gladiator. In fact, Swofford has raised the level of the to-be-made film. ``I can place it on the same platform as the Pyramids of Egypt. The Taj Mahal is not just one of the eight wonders of the world. It has history and a love story,'' he says.

``In fact, the goal of IMAX is to take the viewer to a place he/she would ordinarily never go to. The average IMAX film is tapered with documentaries, travel features but this is outstandingly different,'' Swofford exults. By his second visit to Mumbai, Swofford's has partaken of Indian cinema including Devdas, Zubeidaa and earlier Salaam Bombay and Mississippi Masala. ``I have observed the rich, scenic art department that the industry can boast of, but it isn't the language of international cinema. So, we've taken the international format of story-telling for this timeless film,'' he says of the joint venture that is budgeted at $6 million though it might scale up to $10 million.

However, casting for Shah Jehan has not been done. ``Right now, we are in the research stage. We plan to shoot all over North India -- panning Kashmir, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and the Deccan,'' explains Bharat. Part of the shooting will be against the backdrop of strategic forts and palaces.

``In every film that I've produced, there's been an aspect of drama but this is the first time that we're really trying to tell a story,'' Swofford says. So what is it that drew the two to this subject? ``What does the world know of India'' they ask, ``There's only Gandhi and the Taj that India is associated with. This is our attempt to capture the symbol of human commitment. It is equivalent to the story of Romeo and Juliet.''

The film, while being made, will travel. It will be processed in Los Angeles as India does not have a processing lab. It will then return here for editing. The release is roughly 14 months away.